Door County Writes: Foodie Poetry

Tomatoes on a Steamy Summer Day
by Annette Langlois Grunseth 

Cherub-cheeked Early Girls 
dangle their lip-red lure
cleave red bosoms
around skirts of green leaves.
Lanky San Mariano Romas
hang out together in their red cliques,
dangling their delicious fruit.
A chorus line of Power Pops  
sways and swells
on the vine in symmetrical rows.
Orange SunSugars
blaze their ripe passion,
one taste and their sweet juice explodes.
A festival of voluptuous Early Girls
dances across the kitchen counter 
while those meaty San Marianos 
line up on window sills,
to watch red-costumed chorus girls,
torsos flicking and kicking
right into gazpacho, chili, 
spaghetti sauce, with one
becoming the perfect
crown of a BLT.

Poet Annette Langlois Grunseth has been coming to Door County since she was 11 (which was a long time ago) and is a member of the Door County Poets Collective.

Cherry Pie in July 2020  
by Cindy Crebbin

The cool glass jar from Egg Harbor
 farmer’s market glistened
 with the faces of plump cherries
in juice, pressed against the Mason jar,
 thickened with starch and flavored
 with the taste of almonds.

Memories of my grandmother’s 
cherry pies on the farm
with a coarse sugar-coated lattice
crust brought a longing
for that summer-sweet taste—
that family connection.

I imagined fluting the pie crust,
ladling the 250 ruby cherries
into the bottom of the glass dish,
then careful cutting and placing 
the exquisite lattice strips on top.   

My pie held the promise
of a perfect gift for my
 daughters and grandchildren
on July 4th at our family picnic
in the midst of the pandemic of 2020.

I wonder—did Grandma Emma
bake a few cherry pies with Crisco 
 for my mother and her family
 during the Great Depression?

I see the sweat rolling down
her face as she places the pies
on the window sill to cool,       
bubbling with hot juice    
under the flaky lattice crust, 
minus some precious sugar.

Cindy Crebbin is a lifelong Midwesterner who relishes Wisconsin’s different seasons. A former journalist, she loves creating and teaching poetry and now leads a poetry workshop in Wauwatosa.